New England RadioWatch: August 1, 1996

WAAF Sold

That loud sucking sound you're hearing near Boston's Copley Square is
coming from the American Radio Systems headquarters, as ARS keeps
buying and buying and buying. Within the last few weeks, ARS has
spent about $67 million buying KXOA-AM-FM/KQPT-FM Sacramento,
KRBT-FM/KNAX-FM Fresno, and KOQO-AM/FM Fresno. Now ARS has turned its
attention back to home, spending a reported $24.9 million to buy WAAF
(107.3)/WWTM (1440) from Zapis.

WAAF targets the Boston market with a hard-rock format, serving a
small niche, but one that it has all to itself. WWTM is all sports,
with a signal that doesn't reach anywhere east of Worcester County
very well. They join ARS' existing stable of stations: WRKO (680),
its flagship talker; WEEI (850), which is all sports; WEGQ (93.7), the
Lawrence-licensed 70s outlet; and WBMX (98.5), the hot AC "Mix 98.5."

No immediate format changes have been announced, although ARS begins
an immediate LMA with WAAF/WWTM. This morning's John Lander morning
show on WBMX is taking calls from listeners, offering to "give away"
WWTM to the caller with the best idea for the station.

A few ironies worth noting: WWTM is the former WAAB Boston, which was
co-owned until the early 1940s with WNAC Boston -- the station that's
now WRKO. The stations were broken apart (and WAAB moved to
Worcester) by the 1943 anti-duopoly rules; now they're back in the
same hands again. And just before becoming WWTM in September 1994
(and after stints as WNCR and WFTQ), 1440 was known as WVEI, and was
leased out by the prior owners of WEEI to supplement WEEI's signal on
its former 590 frequency, which was heavily nulled to the west.

What happens next is anyone's guess. Could WAAF end up being more
profitable simulcasting ARS' WEGQ "the Eagle"? Despite a transmitter
move last year, WEGQ's 93.7 signal remains a rimshotter in areas west
and south of the city, and in Worcester it still suffers co-channel
interference from ARS' WZMX (93.7) in Hartford. Since WAAF shows up
in the ratings not only in Boston but in ARS stronghold Hartford,
could ARS try to rimshot 107.3 into both markets? Or will ARS try to
make technical upgrades to make 107.3 more of a Boston player? (That
won't be easy; 107.3 is squeezed in tight with first-adjacents in
Exeter NH, Fairhaven MA, Chatham MA, and Lewiston ME). And could 1440
return to its old function of simulcasting WEEI, which is still weak
to the west of the city despite its 1994 move to the former WHDH 50kw
facilities at 850? We'll keep you posted...

Boston's biggest newspaper continued its tradition of lackluster
coverage of radio. The report of the sale, buried on an inside page
of the business section, calls WAAF a "Boston" station, and mangles
the calls of the Sacramento stations ARS just bought
("KXOA-AM/KWPT-FM"). In the Globe's defense, the report is credited
to Bloomberg -- which as a radio station owner really ought to know
better.

And like I've said at the end of the last two reports, THIS will
really be the last NERW for a week or so. Off to Buffalo and
Rochester tomorrow (a recent article in the Rochester paper claims
it's the most concentrated market in America when it comes to
duopolies, with ARS controlling some 80% of revenue!) -- more when I
return.